1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that carries out processing on substrates based on a plurality of parameters, and a parameter management system for the substrate processing apparatus, a parameter management method for the substrate processing apparatus, a program, and a storage medium, which enable the parameters to be changed.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a conventional substrate processing apparatus that carries out various types of processing on substrates, very many parameters are required for controlling the apparatus. These parameters are managed in the form of a database in the substrate processing apparatus. The various parts of the substrate processing apparatus are operated through data processing being carried out by software based on the parameters. When the version of the software is upgraded to a new version so that some functions can be added or changed in the substrate processing apparatus, parameters are also added or changed, and hence when the version of the software is upgraded, a conversion process (version upgrading process) for changing the parameter database from the old database to a new database is carried out.
If the parameters of the substrate processing apparatus are not set appropriately, then the apparatus may not operate properly, or may break down. Depending on the parameter type, for example for parameters that indicate valid ranges for processing conditions, a user may thus not be enabled to freely set the parameters via an operating unit of the apparatus, changing of the parameters instead being possible by using a parameter changing tool such as special software (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H10-125587 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-228348).
However, to change parameters using such a parameter changing tool, it is necessary to carry out a procedure such as loading and executing the parameter changing tool on the apparatus, deleting the parameter changing tool after execution, and recording the contents of the parameter changes. As described above, there are very many parameters for a substrate processing apparatus, and yet the number of parameters that can be changed with one parameter changing tool is limited. A large number of parameter changing tools are thus required to upgrade the software version. The above procedure must thus be carried out many times.
In this way, for a conventional substrate processing apparatus, when parameters indicating valid ranges for processing conditions or the like are changed, the same procedure must be carried out repeatedly using special tools, and hence changing the parameters requires much time and effort, which is inefficient. Moreover mistakes are liable to be made during the procedure. Such mistakes may cause malfunctioning of the apparatus.